18-year-old Max Coopey, son of police officers, was spared jail after killing 48-year-old Jason Imi and 61-year-old Shackley while driving his parents’ car while high on drugs.
Reports said Coopey had twice the legal limit of the drug when the incident occurred.
As punishment, the police officers’ son was only ordered to complete 100 hours’ community service after he pleaded guilty to drug-driving.
The teen, who had passed the test only two months before the incident, already had five convictions for seven offenses since he was 12.
Thames Valley Police didn’t prosecute Coopey for causing the death of two people by careless or dangerous driving after the investigation concluded that his driving wasn’t dangerous. He was then charged for driving with twice the legal limit of the drug in his system.
During the trial, the press was not allowed to identify Coopey until he turned 18. His mother told the court the incident had been a ‘wake-up call’ for her son and he refrained from using drugs.
In 2018, Coopey was pulled over by police for bad driving. He was found to have 5.7 micrograms of the drug in his system.
While waiting for a court appearance, he smoked cannabis again and took his pals for a drive using his parents’ vehicle. He hit and killed Mr. Shackley and Mr. Imi as they crossed the A329 London Road.
After his arrest, the teen was found with 3.3mcg of cannabis in his system.
“It is the most unfortunate thing. It really has affected my mental well-being,” he said after hearing the families of the victims in court.
A friend who had been in the vehicle said that Coopey immediately stepped on the breaks as soon as he saw the two men but did not change course. “He already knew there was someone in the road, he was already braking before anyone said anything.
“Other than applying the brakes he didn’t do anything, no steering or anything.
“A window smashed and I knew we were hitting a person. I could see two bodies on the floor curled up, they were behind the car to the left.”
Mrs. Imi, who had three children with the victim, said: “We had so many plans for our future together and I feel that has been stolen from us.”
Her lawyer, Soyab Patel, said: “If you ask any member of the public, ‘a guy is driving down the road, he’s killed two people, and he was over the limit on cannabis, and he got 100 hours of community service’, you just get the answer ‘what? are you kidding me?’.”
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